


You Need a Blade (To Cut a Monster Down)

by GhostCwtch



Series: JaegerconBingo Fills [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Coyote Tango - Freeform, Jaegercon Bingo, Jaegers, Pre-Canon, bed time story, legend, origin story of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:48:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostCwtch/pseuds/GhostCwtch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako Mori's bed time stories are a little different to the ones from before K-Day. The ones about Coyote Tango are her favorite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Need a Blade (To Cut a Monster Down)

**Author's Note:**

> My fill for "Jaeger Legends" on my Jaegercon Bingo card. The Japanese folklore borrowed here is strictly taken from a vaguely remembered college class on the subject, and wikipedia. It's also mixed in with some more American tradition, and so if you're reading this and thinking "well this is all wrong", try and remember that Stacker Pentecost is a British guy raising a Japanese daughter and that he probably doesn't have a 100% grasp on Japanese folklore either.

In time with the launch of the Mark 1s, there is a subtler debut in among the people. Little saying here and there creep into daily language, bed time stories change just a bit. The jaegers a woven back in through the oral history of the world and they are always, always the heros.  
  
The jaegers are always the heros, the kaiju the only villains the world needs.  
  
Mako's favourites, growing up as she did, were always the stories about Coyote Tango. She gets more of those than most kids, with her Dad being who he is, and all, but it's the one she suspects that he made up himself that remains her all time favourite. He tells it the first time when she asks him where Coyote Tango comes from, because she can't believe that people made such a wonderful thing. Surely there's a better explanation that that? Stacker smiles down at her and says that there is a story, would she like to hear it? Mako nods and sits, listening to the story of how Coyote Tango came to be.  
  
It goes like this:  
  
Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a little girl who lived in a high rise building. This was unusual already, because everyone knew that it could take too long to get out of a skyscraper in the event of an attack and so most of the ones still standing were just empty relics of a safer time. Mako had liked it though. She remembered living in the apartment on the fortieth floor, back before.  
  
The little girl who lives in this story though doesn't escape downwards when the Kaiju come. She's trapped up there for what feels like years as the kaiju move below. She can hear people screaming at first, and then only a silence that is harder to hear than the screams. She thinks that this is where she will die, up in this high rise.  
  
This thought makes her angry. The little girl does not want to die in a high rise and never see the sun again or play outside again. It makes her so angry that the little girl screams down at the kaiju. They ignore her, why should they listen to one pathetic human when there is a whole city to destroy? They ignore her, but the spirits of the world do not.  
  
Susanoo hears her scream and it is like the scream of of storm. He looks down on the girl and looks at the kaiju and remembers slaying the Yamata no Orochi. The fury of battle ignites in his heart and he asks his sister, Amaterasu, to her the Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi and the armour of a god to wield it with. Amaterasu, who has hidden her face in sorrow for what is happening in the world, sends the sword and a beautiful suit of armour to the girl, imbued with all the power of a god.  
  
The girl takes up the armour and the sword, but she is not a god and it is too powerful for her to wield alone. Susanoo sees this and turns to his sister again, and asks her to look across the earth for the person who can help the girl wield the armour and the sword. Amaterasu looks and searches, and finally, she finds an old coyote in the desert.  
  
She asks him if he will help the girl and he says to her, "I am but an old coyote. How can I help a girl child wield a sword or suit of armour?"  
  
Amaterasu gives him a small box with magic pills inside it and says, "If you take one of these magic pills every day, you shall have the form of a man and you will be able to wield the armour and the sword with the girl."  
  
The coyote accepts the box and takes the magic pills, becoming a tall, strong man. He goes to the girl and together they put on the god-armour and take up the sword. The battle is fierce, the kaiju turning to fight them instead of destroying the city. Each blow is like a step in a dance, the singing of the blade and the roar of the kaiju providing the music.  
  
It takes three days to kill every kaiju that has come through the breach this time, and by then end of it the girl and the coyote are both tired. They take off their armour and lay down the sword. The girl is alone in the world, so the coyote continues to take the magic pills to stay a man and raise her like she is his own pup. The girl doesn't forget the sword, but knows that the coyote is old and that she will have to wait for a new partner before she can wear the god armour again.  
  



End file.
